Displays
Our First Ever Tifo
Comprising of over 3000 pieces of red and white A3 card, Our first Tifo took meticulous planning as this was the first time we had ever tried to pull something like this off. Designed, and re-designed over and over, the Tifo took in the region of 6 weeks to design, plan, crowd fund, get signed off by the safety officer before coming to life on the day.
It wasn’t to be for the red and white wizards on the day, narrowly being defeated by the then Premier League side 2-1 with the goals coming from Nathan Tyson, Peter Crouch and Johnathan Walters respectively. It also marked the decline of our season, as after this game Rovers would fail to win a single game in the 16 that followed, before finishing 21st and bowing out to League Two for the first time since 2004 in the process.
Doncaster Rovers 1 - 2 Stoke City
FA Cup Third Round - 9th January 2016
We turn up,why don’t u?!
Following on from the aforementioned Stoke game, and watching Rovers free fall back into the fourth tier, we produced a simple but effective banner for our final game of the League One season, to get the attention of the club, management, players at the time - “WE TURN UP, WHY DON’T U?!”
Rovers run from January 9th to relegation being confirmed was a measly 2 wins in 22 games, including that run of 17 games without a win. It seemed that the future at Rovers was dark (We doubt anyone saw the period of 2019-2023 under the control of David Blunt dark though) but Rovers opted to stay with Fergie Jr and popped straight back up to League One at the first attempt.
Doncaster Rovers 0-0 Burton Albion
Sky Bet League One - 8th May 2016
Confetti Tifo
Rovers first season back in the Fourth tier, after 12 years and at some points 2 divisions away from it, was something of an expansion year for the Black Bank. Our first display of the season came in the form of a tribute to James Coppinger on his 500th game for Rovers. We opted for something a bit more unusual to UK audiences with a confetti Tifo rather than a traditional card or flag variation. This Tifo was also the first, and only one not to take place before the game or during the players walking on to the field of play, but rather in the 26th Minute (for obvious reasons). It took 12 volunteeers over 4 hours to make this display happen, with over 2000 pieces of red and white confetti being painstakingly cut to size! The things we do for this club eh?
The result went our way on the day after goals from the man of the hour, James Coppinger himself and the love our lives Andy Williams to set us well on our way towards promotion.
Doncaster Rovers 2-0 Newport County
Sky Bet League Two - 17th September 2016
The Red Wall
Over 200 streamers and 400 flags in various sizes out in all their glory during this end of season clash between two teams that were fighting for promotion back to the third tier, the biggest Tifo that we had attempted to that date. As cliché as it is, this one to meticulous planning, crowd funding and procuring flags from the EU to keep the costs as low as possible.
Unfortunately we got unstuck during the game, going 1-0 down after 16 minutes, equalising on the 26th minute by the man again, James Coppinger, before Exeter saw the game off with two more goals in the second half. The title race went down to the final day, and away to relegation threatened Hartlepool United, a game live on Sky Sports. Rovers would lose that game ultimately surrendering a massive points lead at the top of the table and finishing third in a preverbal 1 horse race. Exeter on the other hand would have to wait a further 5 seasons before finally managing their promotion.
Doncaster Rovers 1-3 Exeter City
Sky Bet League Two - 29th April 2017
2017-2019 - Hiatus
As our initial volunteers priorities changed, we were not in the position to put in the amount of Time, Planning and Effort that displays take with no new volunteers being in a position to take over. Black Bank continued as a 12th man within the stadium, however the Flags that we had purchased had gone missing, or had got damaged and there no money left in the pot to replace them after the displays we had pulled off that year.
Second Card Tifo
After our initial break, Rovers went on a cup run under Grant McCann’s leadership, making it to the Fifth Round and being handed a mouth watering tie against Crystal Palace. At this time our volunteer team had gone from 6 to 1 and the last member was not allowing this one to go by without a display. After the call, he was able to get another volunteer on board and together we put together a design, and organised crowdfunding in around 2 weeks. We spoke to the club and were extremely pleased when it was announced that the ticket pricing had been reduced in order to pack out the Stadium… For the first time in a long time, the buzz was back.
This game got selected to be broadcast live on BBC on the Sunday so we spent nearly 12 hours at the stadium on the Saturday stapling over 3000 pieces of card ready for the team of volunteers who came down the following morning to set up. Ultimately this display was something of a one off, as this was at the height of a Rovers peak before the trajectory of the club came crashing down in the years to follow under David Blunt’s reign as Chairman and the club opting to go “self-sufficient".”
Goals from Jeff Schlupp from a very well executed counter attack, and Max Meyer (Yes, us neither) on the stroke of half time put this one to bed however the reds would make it to the League One Play offs that season, before the agony of a Penalty Shootout loss to Palace’s London rivals Charlton.
Doncaster Rovers 0-2 Crystal Palace
FA Cup Third Round - 17th February 2019
2019- 2025 - Second Hiatus, Failed Projects, Covid-19, Cost of Living crisis and a toxic club environment!
After the Palace Display, the team of volunteers went back to one, and for the first time, it was not one of the founding members. Black Bank as a whole in the stadium was thriving, we had a few flags that re-surfaced after going missing and we had been using a Surfer Flag that had been purchased by the VSC to get through the 2018-19 season however after Grant McCann had been poached by Hull City, and Darren Moore came in, thing started to become more flat. Not wanting to go down the crowd funding route, we attempted to get into merchandising for the first time however this ultimately went no where due to poor planning, naivety and not having the relevant contacts in place. Season 2019-20 then wound up getting curtailed after the outbreak of Covid-19, just as Rovers we’re on a charge to get into the play offs, finishing 9th after the league was decided on a PPG basis. The 2020-21 season was strictly behind closed doors only, with fans paying for what turned out in the end to be a virtual season ticket just to keep the club alive and our one remaining volunteer.. you guessed, his priorities had to change.
In 2021, after the BCD season, we attempted to reboot the Black Bank and 2 more volunteers came on board, we managed to organise a very successful march to the ground for the first game back and also had attempted to pull out a very small tifo, however with everything being completely last minute (think the delivery of materials having to be collected from a distribution centre in Rotherham the night before last minute) the plan was rushed and the display looked confusing to say it lightly. We kept trying to find alternative funding routes however after Covid, the Cost of Living Crisis hit therefore crowdfunding was a no go. We we’re given a donation from the VSC which paid to replace some broken flags but ultimately these went missing too.
At this time, the feel around the club went sour, Darren Moore had been poached by Sheffield Wednesday, and Rovers went through a string of unsuccessful managers in Andy Butler who would oversee us being relegated back to League Two, Richie Wellens who exiled at least 2 players of the first team squad, Gary McSheffery who publicly stated that he did not want the job and was given it anyway and Danny Schofield who seemed only to get the job on the basis that he was born in Doncaster and not on his coaching merit - with each manager somehow being worse than their predecessor. The club even wound up with a transfer embargo for not paying Brighton their loan fees for Todd Miller (who very recently was playing in the 7th tier)
In 2023, enough was enough for Terry Bramall and he injected some significant cash into the club. The first man on the shopping list… Grant McCann! David Blunt would then be ousted as Chairman in December 2023, and bought out by his follow board members in Mid 2024. It felt like the club had their identity back after staring into what could have been a potential drop back into the National League for the first time in 21 years, to a run of form that saw 2 defeats in 19 games, 10 wins in a row and moving from 22nd in the league to finishing 5th and securing the Play-Offs, only for that cruel Penalty Shootout loss to get us again!
OUR CITY, OUR CLUB (25M x 9.5 M) Surfer Flag Tifo
Now this display has a rather interesting back story. In October 2024, there was an anonymous post written in the Doncaster Rovers closed Facebook group for supporters asking about what happened to the Black Bank. This post was actually written by Freddie Dodd, our now chief designer and Social Media/Web volunteer. From there, Freddie had started speaking to both Matty, who had kept hold over all the Black Bank socials etc during the chaos period, and Scott, one of our founding members and kept pitching ideas to both.
The breakthrough was when Rovers had been issued with a FA Cup Tie against Crystal Palace and we all had a chat about what we could do for this game, we also then got Gareth on board. We had planned another card Tifo, but then the game got given the Monday Night 8PM on BBC iPlayer death slot. From there it was back to the drawing board until we came up with an idea to do a massive surfer flag.
At the same time, The Doncaster Rovers’ Shadow Board had implemented a new concept called The Match Day Experience Group and we began liaising with them and the club and set up the crowd funder that the club kindly promoted on their Social Media. We hit the £3000 target and produced the giant surfer flag that incorporated our club crest, our city skyline and the name of patrons who had donated to the funding the flag. We unveiled this for the first time against AFC Wimbledon, and the flag even went a bit viral on TikTok thanks to the “The RealDons TV” channel. We then unveiled it for the remaining two home fixtures against Colchester United and Bradford City respectively to get the boys over the line to Promotion back to Sky Bet League One after 3 long seasons away. The boys would then wrap up the League title the next weekend away at Notts County.
